Nickelback Barely Miss The Top

12/01/2011.

Nickelback's new album, "Here and Now," had a strong first week of sales and just barely missed out on debuting at the top of the Billboard 200 charts.

The trade magazine reports that Nickelback's new effort debuts at No 2 after selling 0.18% less than Michael Buble's "Christmas". Nickelback's label reports that the album sold 226,714 units and missed the top of the chart by just 419 copies.

Hits Double Daily places the new Nickelback effort as a solid No 1 with reported first week sales of 225,325 units vs Buble's 218,815. Billboard reports that the last time there was such a narrow margin between no 1 and no 2 albums was in 2007 when Bruce Springsteen's "Magic" beat out Kid Rock's "Rock N Roll Jesus" by a margin of 0.3%.

"We are thrilled with the debut of our new record Here and Now and deeply appreciate that our fans have embraced it all over the world," said front man Chad Kroeger said in a statement. "It's truly an amazing feeling for us. We are so thankful that we get to make music for our fans and can't wait to play the new songs when we hit the road next year."

According to Roadrunner, Here and Now is also the biggest international debut in Nickelback's history. The album debuted at #1 in Canada, Australia and Japan, #2 in Germany, Switzerland, and #3 in Austria and South Africa marking the highest debuts in the band's career in those markets.